Thursday, March 27, 2008

Don't Move The Body

I had a case of the Buffies last night and had a resounding urge to rewatch "The Body", episode 16 from season five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. By now it's commonly accepted how good this show was, no matter how low it rated or how awards bodies shamefully ignored it in major categories, apart from one Best Actress nomination at the Golden Globes and a writing Emmy nomination for the famous "Hush" episode.

"The Body" was an episode however that should have given it Emmys, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, everything. It's one of the best single episodes of any series you'll ever find and definitely (in my eyes) the best episode of Buffy throughout it's entire seven seasons.

It is, for me, the scene at the high school though that just tears me up. I had tears reeling down my face watching it again. Such powerful filming. It still disappoints me that people question how great this series was. Plenty of more loftier and critically acclaimed series never even got near the level of mastery episodes like "The Body", "Hush" or "Once More With Feeling". It's so intimate and raw.

I really should try and rewatch the entire Buffy series again. It's been too long and I've never revisited seasons six and seven. For me season five is the best, followed by three, two, one, seven, four and six although I couldn't really tell, it's been too long. I have a big softspot for the early days when it more traditionally structured, but I can't deny that once it started getting into the more denser stuff that it became something else entirely, not merely just a great TV show. I haven't delved into the comics that have since been released. More because I'd hate to read one and then have to wait a month or two or three or however long it is before a new one is out. I'm impatient like that. I'm also impatient for another show of Buffys ilk. I really need to get those Battlestar Galactica DVDs I've been meaning to buy for a while!

Absolutely my three favourite episodes of one of the true television greats. I had to write a few thousand words on 'Once More...' last semester for uni and was pleasantly surprised at how well the show had held up over the year.

Those are my three favourite episodes as well. Indeed, it was Hush that first got me into the show, having watched one ep of season one several years previously and been underwhelmed. Naturally I went back and watched everything from scratch...again and again in some cases!

Yeah, seasons one-three are more a typical fun WB network program, in season four it started to get into deeper stuff and by the episode "Hush" it had struck something magic, but the monster of that season was blah. Season five was where it truly went above and beyond the realms of "fun WB network program".

I loved it so much in college that I ended up doing my senior thesis on 19th century gothic literature and feminism in Buffy. I think season 3 is the most perfect (if a different actress had been cast as Glory then that season could have been my favourite) but I also have huge respect for the depth and horror of season six.

As for my favourite episode, I think Becoming Parts 1 and 2 were the most melodramatically brilliant television I had ever watched.

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